380 DYSTOCIA. 



880. Rest, low diet, a horizontal posture upon a hair mattrass, 

 rather than upon a feather bed, in a chamber which ought to be 

 darkened rather than too much lighted, quiet and not noisy, cool, and 

 well ventilated, rather than hot and close, with diluting or cold aci- 

 dulous drinks very frequently suffice when early recourse is had to 

 them, in moderate cases of hemorrhage: if the woman is strong or 

 sanguine, and especially if there have been precursory symptoms, if 

 there are rigors, and the state of the pulse warrants it, six or eight 

 ounces of blood may be drawn from the arm. When these slight 

 succors do not succeed at once, and where there has been no pre- 

 cursory molimen, and the woman is naturally weak, we have re- 

 course to revulsives, and to external refrigerants. We prescribe 

 manuluvia, either simple or containing mustard, dry friction of the 

 arms, the breast and along the spine, and apply large cups to the 

 breasts; aspersions are made upon the abdomen and inner part of 

 the thighs, with cold water, either alone or with the addition of vine- 

 gar, ether, or ammoniac, &c.; compresses wetted with the same 

 liquids, or with iced water, may also be applied to the same parts. 

 Burns praises the effect of alum; Duncan and Rigby seem to have 

 derived great advantages from the use of opium and sugar of lead 

 (acetate of lead), which had previously been recommended by Et- 

 muUer, &c., and is frequently employed by Dewees; the digitalis is 

 also recommended by many of the English physicians; but these va- 

 rious articles are rarely made use of in France. Rhodion, Hamilton, 

 and some others have recommended the application of tight ligatures 

 to the limbs. A practice that seems to me to deserve the attention of 

 practitioners is the application of a sinapism between the shoulders; 

 I have made use of it often enough, and in cases sufficiently various, 

 to enable me to affirm that it is one of the most powerful and most 

 useful revulsives that can be recommended. MM. Trastour, La- 

 roche, Nivert, and several young physicians who had seen me em- 

 ploy it, or put it in practice themselves, have already made mention 

 of it in their theses. I have elsewhere stated the anatomical and 

 physiological considerations by which I was led to its employ- 

 ment. I resort to it both in the first months of pregnancy and 

 during labor, as also in the interval betwixt these periods; and the 

 effect has always been extremely prompt. A young woman, nine- 

 teen years of age, was brought to the Clinique Externe of i\ie School 

 of Medicine towards the close of 1825; she was about three months 

 gone with child, and had been flooding for twelve hours; we tried 

 the remedies indicated higher up, but the flow continued neverthe- 

 less to increase until evening; being then alarmed by her extreme 

 weakness and the appearance of approaching syncope, I applied a 



